The present invention pertains generally to an outdoor cooker similar to a barbecue grill, and more particularly to an outdoor cooker that cooks by indirect heating.
Recent research has demonstrated that certain methods of cooking foods such as beef, pork, poultry and fish can create chemicals which do not naturally occur in the food. While food is grilling, fat and juices drip and contact open flames, coals or heating elements, and are incinerated producing products such as smoke and gas. It has been found that these products contain polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), known carcinogens. During the cooking process, these products blow pass the food depositing PAHs on the surface of the food being cooked.
It has also been found that another group of chemicals, called heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAAs), also develop during grilling, broiling or frying of meats. HAAs, also known carcinogens, are formed when meats are cooked at high temperatures. When meats are cooked at lower temperatures, negligible amounts of the chemicals are formed.
Standard grill designs have the disadvantage of producing smoke and gas resulting from the incineration of fat and meat juices which drip and contact an open flame or element. Other disadvantages are that prior art grills do not always cook food evenly, burn fuel efficiently or preclude the incineration of food drippings.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,773,319 describes a barbecue grill which eliminates flaming during cooking. A deflector plate is positioned directly above a gas burner and a grease collector, having two downwardly sloping surfaces and an inclined channel, is located above the deflector plate. The deflector directs heat generally upwardly through a space between the walls of the housing of the barbecue grill and the sides of the grease collector. However, the heat flow is turbulent which can result in hot spots.
In addition, while the above described barbecue grill cooks with indirect heat and prevents food drippings from contacting open flames, the grease (or drippings) collector is in extreme proximity to the gas burner. Since the grease collector consists of a single thickness of stainless steel sheet metal, it is most likely that the drippings will incinerate on the collector.